PASADENA – Marshall Fundamental has postponed a play dealing with a school shooting after receiving complaints about the subject and timing of the production in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.

The secondary school’s production of William Mastrosimone’s “Bang Bang, You’re Dead” follows an unrepentant teenage killer as he slowly comes to terms with his actions.

The play was scheduled to begin its two-week run on Thursday, but officials said Thursday morning that it would be postponed until an unspecified date.

The decision came shortly after Marshall began receiving mostly anonymous telephone calls and e-mails decrying the timing of the play. The curtain would have gone up less than a week after 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech by a student who then killed himself.

But the school said that some callers were outraged that the play would ever be shown to teenagers at all.

“We were inundated all morning,” said drama teacher David Pitts said. Pitts made the decision after the Virginia killings to keep the production going in order to get a dialogue going in his school.

“I never thought about canceling the play. If anything we have to do this more now,” he said.

Principal Steve Miller defended the content of the production, calling it educational and relevant for students. But he said he will postpone it out of respect for the victims of Monday’s mass murder.

“We want to keep the focus on the victims of Virginia Tech,” he said. “It’s too sensitive an issue right now, what’s in the press.”

“Bang Bang” takes place inside the jail cell of a young man who stormed his school cafeteria, shooting and killing his girlfriend and four others.

The ghosts of the dead then gather inside the cell, all asking, “Why me?” The play then flashes back to rehash the series of events and behavioral problems that led up to the crime.

While the character feels no remorse for his deeds at the play’s start, he breaks down at the end, realizing he’s ruined his life along with his victims.

After learning of the uproar brewing around his play, Pennsylvania-based author Mastrosimone said those who complained have completely missed the point of his work.

“I feel badly for the people who made these calls. They are living inside ignorance,” he said. “The kids understand. It’s about addressing something they knew was happening in their schools that completely went over the heads of adults.”

Mastrosimone said he’s actually received letters from teenage boys who told him they had been thinking of killing other students and changed their minds after seeing the production.

“Kids wrote to me and said `I had a hit list. I was was waiting for my opportunity,”‘ he said. “I’m not happy about that, its very disturbing and scary, but it’s true.”

Students at the Marshall campus on Thursday expressed mixed feelings about the cancellation. While some were happy to see it postponed, many said they believed adults were overreacting to a situation that they were capable of handling.

“Adults, they think kids are going to watch it and we don’t think – that we’ll and go out and shoot people, said Christopher Laborde, 12-year-old seventh-grader who was planning on attending the play this week.

“It’s the same things with video games,” said Laborde, adding he was OK with a postponement, so long as the play is put back on as promised by the administration.

Mastrosimone said he would be willing to do what ever it takes to ensure the play does run. He said he would even travel to Pasadena to speak with those concerned and introduce the play.

“Plays can get to people in the ways that doctors can’t, that medicine can’t,” he said. “My heart really hurts for the kid there who could benefit from the play.”